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Employer Alert: Employer only needs to provide rest and meal breaks, not ensure that they are taken
by: Jennifer Duggan and Carl Fessenden
Lately, it seems that the courts do not understand the realities of operating a business. However, at least one court has now recognized what every business operator knows - laws tacitly designed to protect employees often work against the desires and interest of those employees.
In Brinker Restaurant Corporation v. the Superior Court (2008) 2008 Cal.App. LEXIS 1138, the court addressed the issue of rest and meal breaks. Brinker operates a variety of restaurants. Plaintiffs were a potential class of employees who allegedly were not offered rest and meal breaks in accordance with the Labor Code. In what turned out to be a long and complicated decision regarding class certification, the court came to some important conclusions. Specifically, the court decided the following:
Employers need only provide, not ensure, that rest periods are taken; Employers are not required to provide a meal break every five (5) consecutive hours, and the meal break may be taken early in the shift, even if the employee ends up working over five (5) hours after the meal break; Employers need only provide meal breaks, not ensure that they are taken; and Employers can only be liable for employees working off the clock if they knew or should have known they were doing so.
Although the court points out that its decision does not mean that claims asserting violations of rest breaks or meal breaks can never be certified as a matter of law, the practicability of the decision is to make it more difficult to do so.
It seems reasonably likely that the Plaintiffs will petition the Supreme Court of California. If the Supreme Court accepts review of this case, it will be de-published and will not be able to be cited in support of an employer's position. If the Supreme Court accepts review, one can only hope that it also recognizes the practical realities of running a business and upholds the decision of the Court of Appeal.
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